Synthesis of Amine-Terminated Polymers Using Lewis Acid-Induced N-methlyeneamines as Cationic Initiators

在新的聚合物材料的设计中，开发能够在明确位置产生具有特定功能的聚合物的合成方法是至关重要的。该项目专注于一种合成途径，即在聚合开始时将胺端基放置在乙烯基聚合物上，这意味着胺基团固定在不断增长的聚合链上。这项研究的最终目标是合成化学上不同的聚合物，每个聚合物链的末端都带有仲胺基团。聚胺端基能够通过公认的反应进一步转化，再加上它们在固态催化中的潜在用途，使得端胺聚合物具有很高的价值。本科生完成的研究已经确定了拟议工作作为合成胺端基聚合物的一种手段的可行性，同时还证明了所需的实验技术在本科生环境中是合适的。从事这个项目的学生将获得合成聚合物和有机化学方面的经验，同时还将接受培训，使用凝胶渗透色谱、紫外-可见(UV-VIS)光谱和核磁共振(核磁共振)光谱表征其聚合物产品。值得注意的是，巴克内尔最近获得了一台600兆赫的瓦里安核磁共振光谱仪，这将被证明是表征聚合物的强大工具。

The development of synthetic methods that lead to polymers with specific functionality at well-defined locations is essential in the design of new polymeric materials. This project focuses on a synthetic pathway that places an amine end group on vinyl polymers at the onset of the polymerization, meaning that the amine group is anchored to the growing polymer chain. The ultimate goal of this research is the synthesis of chemically diverse polymers bearing secondary amine groups at the end of each polymer chain. The ability of the polymeric amine end groups to be transformed further by accepted reactions coupled with their potential use in solid state catalysis makes amine-terminated polymers valuable. Research accomplished by undergraduate students has already established the viability of the proposed work as a means to synthesize amine-terminated polymers, while additionally proving the required experimental techniques are appropriate in an undergraduate setting. Students working on this project will gain experience in synthetic polymer and organic chemistry, while also being trained to characterize their polymeric products using gel permeation chromatography, ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Notably, Bucknell has recently acquired a six hundred megahertz Varian NMR spectrometer, which will prove to be a powerful tool in characterization of the polymers.